As Autumn Leaves Read Online Free Page A

exasperation, but gripping the apple so it didn’t go flying. “What are you doing there?”
    “I know you left the team, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to support them.”
    “I chose to put my focus somewhere else!”
    Her mother closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “This isn’t what I wanted to fight about. I don’t want to fight at all. I want to get to the bottom of what I heard.”
    “What did you hear?” Kayla had a suspicion. Not wanting her mother to worry, Kayla kept the troubles she’d been having at school from her, but it wouldn’t last forever. Not with how gossip tended to travel like wildfire through all of Greenville.
    “Something about why you broke up with Jason. And quit the squad.”
    “What something?” Kayla wasn’t going to say it out loud. If asked, she would tell as much of the truth as she could, but not until her mother chased for it.
    “That… well.” Her mother stood up straight. “You didn’t want to sleep with him, but he tried to pressure you, so you broke up with him. And all the girls on the squad are mad at you for it, so you decided to quit.”
    Kayla blinked. Gentler than what Kayla expected, she’d been waiting for Cold Fish and Ice Queen to come out—maybe her mother was censoring, but maybe she hadn’t heard that side of it.
    “Who’d you hear that from?”
    “Amy’s mother. She heard it from Amy, who’s upset to hear you quit the squad, but she’s heard some rumors about why.”
    “Oh,” Kayla said, surprised.
    Kayla wasn’t close to Amy—Amy was a year older than Kayla, and they had never been on the same squad at the same time, though they would’ve been this year. Kayla knew her from some of the combined JV and varsity functions from the year before. Popular at school, the head cheerleader with a hot hockey boyfriend, she was notorious for being sweet and accepting of all kinds of kids. Her best friend was the one openly gay guy at school.
    “Is there any truth to this? Are the girls giving you trouble at school?”
    Kayla licked her lips, trying to decide the best way to explain. Her mother wouldn’t get it—wouldn’t really get it—but Kayla didn’t expect her to let go of this line of questioning with the tidbit of gossip she’d received.
    “Mom, the two are completely unrelated. I decided to break up with Jason for one reason, and I decided to leave cheerleading for another. They just happened to occur at the same time, sort of.”
    “Okay. What are the reasons?”
    Kayla refrained from rolling her eyes. Being hostile wouldn’t help this situation. “I’ve explained the cheerleading one repeatedly,” she said. “All summer. I don’t like that kind of competition anymore. I’d much rather dance than cheer.”
    Her mom held up her hand. “All right. We won’t beat this dead horse any more. You won’t change your mind. And the rumors about Jason? You never told me the real reason. You said you decided to break up with him because you didn’t and I quote, ‘ like like him’.”
    “And it’s the truth. I don’t like him like that. Besides, he’s a dickbag.”
    “Watch your language.”
    “What, would it make it better if I said he was a dickbag who was trying to pressure me into sex and I didn’t want to, so I broke up with him?”
    “He didn’t do anything, did he? Hurt you, or force himself—”
    “Mom, no ,” Kayla said. “I’m a virgin, okay? I will probably be one for a very long time, boys don’t interest me, and neither does sex! I don’t want it!”
    The room fell silent, so quiet they’d be able to hear a pin drop as loud as a booming crash. They stared at each other, and Kayla’s cheeks warmed with embarrassment. She wished the floor would open and swallow her whole. This discussion was the last thing she wanted to have with her mother.
    “I understand that you’re a late bloomer,” her mom started slowly. “And no mother in her right mind would have an issue with their daughter not